Nazareth's Karam among the stars at sports autograph session

A group photo of the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team drivers for last month's Rolex 24 at Daytona features Nazareth's Sage Karam (standing far left).

A group photo of the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates team drivers for last month's Rolex 24 at Daytona features Nazareth's Sage Karam (standing far left). (Jerry Markland, Getty Images)

Frank BodaniOf The York Daily Record (TNS)

Racing and wrestling have always brought the father and son together.

From the endless cross country commutes to go-kart races … to the times when the kid went against his old man's wrestling team … to his meteoric rise to IndyCar phenom.

Even to last summer when Sage Karam finally got his father in the car next to him — on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

It was part of a fan-friendly event: Pay a few hundred bucks to ride two laps with a professional driver. Sage is only 19 and a sudden star in the sport after shocking everyone by starting in the last row at the Indy 500 and ripping up the field, all the way to ninth place by day's end.

He wanted his dad to really experience a bit of this, too. So he convinced him to take two laps like all the other customers that day. Helmet on and strapped in.

"We're heading into Turn 1 going 190 mph and I'm already saying my prayers," father Jody Karam said, remembering back as he watched his son sign autographs Thursday afternoon at the 51st Annual York Area Sports Night at the Heritage Hills Golf and Conference Center.

"I'm thinking, 'This is over. We're going to die here. There's no way this car is going to stick.' Somehow, he gets a foot from the wall. You could reach out and touch the wall!

"After the second lap I was ready to come in. It's very uncomfortable. You get so nervous. And it's the X factor, it's my kid driving, like he's going to show off and screw up and he's going to wreck … So when we got into the pits I said, 'Were you driving faster than you drive the others? And he's like, 'No, Dad, that was boring. I was floored the whole time around. It's no big deal. I do that every lap.'

"I couldn't imagine passing cars at that speed … There was nobody on the track but us, and I was scared to death. It's crazy, it's intense."

And to think that this high-speed dream is playing out, in part, because of wrestling.

Sage Karam wasn't the biggest draw at the York Sports Night autograph session, not even close.

The kid from Nazareth sat at the same table with LPGA Hall of Famer Betsy King, who's from just down the road in Reading. Sage quietly watched fans coming at her in twos and threes.

Former Major League Baseball saves leader Lee Smith was holding court on the other side of the room. Pro Football Hall of Famer John Hannah, perhaps the greatest guard in the history of the game, got a line of admirers at yet another table.

And when former Penn State and NFL running back Mike Guman, of Bethlehem, finally arrived, a crowd materialized out of nowhere and pressed close.

Of course, Karam is still on his way up, starring in not only one niche sport but two.

His father has been a wrestling coach for 22 years at Liberty High — a rival of his son's school in powerhouse District 11. Sage has been wrestling since he was 5, about the same time he started racing.

Soon enough, wrestling became winter prep for racing the rest of the year, and the best kind of training possible, they swear.

"A lot of races, he didn't start off in the lead and pull away," Jody Karam said. Rather, "it was starting off in third or fourth, picking guys off, being persistent, never giving up. That's from wrestling. Wresting exposes every one of your weaknesses."

Said Sage Karam: "I'd always be in the best shape of the season that first race. I always kind of thought it was an unfair advantage. No one else in driving does wrestling, and it gets you in shape pretty good.

"I'd see my opponents coming out of the car covered in sweat and I'd barely break a sweat. You get hot, it gets really hot in the cockpit. … In wrestling, you're working out in a room that's 100 degrees and so you train for the heat. And training for the heat in racing is pretty big."

Last year, as a senior at Nazareth High, Sage Karam went against his father's wrestling team and pinned his opponent. Then, after a month break for racing, he returned in time for the PIAA team tournament in time to upset one of the top 145-pounders in the state.

This year, Sage helped his dad coach during his slow time as an IndyCar developmental driver. He's hoping to soon earn full-time status as a member of the Chip Ganassi Racing team and drove for the team last month at the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

Even during the racing season, when he lives in Indianapolis, he finds a high school wrestling team to work out with.

It will always be a two-sport relationship, just an uneven one.

"Don't get me wrong, I love wrestling, but my heart has always been in racing. It's just a rush and it's different. You can't really describe what 240 mph feels like, but when you're going that fast, it's pretty good … ."